ragged

Ragged is an adjective describing something with an irregular, uneven, or worn appearance or edge. It can refer to physical borders that are torn, frayed, or jagged, as well as surfaces that have become rough or uneven through use or damage.

In everyday usage, ragged often describes clothing, fabric, or paper with damaged or distressed edges. A ragged hem or a ragged edge on a garment or item suggests wear or deliberate deliberate distress. The term can also convey a rough, unfinished, or tattered look.

In typography and publishing, ragged describes text alignment where the right edge is uneven rather than flush. Ragged-right text is left-aligned with an irregular right margin, while ragged-left would be right-aligned with an irregular left margin. The term contrasts with justified text, where both margins are aligned.

In computing and data structures, ragged has specialized meanings. A ragged array (also known as a jagged array) is a multi-dimensional array whose subarrays vary in length, rather than forming a perfect rectangle. Ragged data structures can save memory when elements differ in size. The concept also appears in discussions of tensors and other hierarchical data representations.

Etymology traces ragged to rag, a piece of cloth, with the suffix -ed added to form an adjective. The sense of roughness and irregularity has broad cross-domain usage in language and technical terminology.